Coronado baseball wins two, stays alive

Joy Lewis/Reporter-News Lubbock Coronado Mustang Paxton De La Garcia slides safely into third base just under the hand of Abilene High's Brandon Bollinger during the sixth inning of their game on Saturday, May 12, 2012 at Abilene High School.

Joy Lewis/Reporter-News Lubbock Coronado Mustang Taylor Bridges throws a pitch during the game against Abilene High School on Saturday, May 12, 2012 at Abilene High School.

FROM STAFF REPORTS

ABILENE — Will Breedlove tossed a complete-game, one-hit shutout, and Coronado followed the path that led to last year’s state tournament berth by winning twice on Saturday to take its best-of-three Class 5A area playoff series against Abilene.

The win vaults the Mustangs (28-8-2) into the regional quarterfinals where they will face Arlington Martin at a date, time and site to be determined.

“I made sure I was real stretched and loose,” Breedlove said. “Abilene High’s a really good two-out and two-strike hitting team. I made sure I hit my spots and kept it low and tried to make the ground out the whole time, which they did. I may not have had a lot of strikeouts, but I trust in my teammates to catch grounders and foul balls.”

Paxton DeLaGarza, Greg Hewett, Tyler Thorne, Chace Sarchet and Landry Rousseau each drove in a run for the Mustangs (28-8-2) in the decisive 5-0 win that came after they’d tied the series earlier in the day with an 13-6 victory.

That was more than enough for Breedlove, who walked five, struck out three and retired the first in Eagles (18-13) he faced. He recorded 14 ground-ball outs, two of which came on double plays that erased a pair of walks.

“You never go in thinking something like that’s going to happen,” Coronado coach Gary Hix said. “Will threw that kind of stuff for us early in the year and we put him in a reliever role in the middle of the season. He competes. He understands what we like. When we walked out here I told him he was going to have the most important game and he said ‘I understand.’ And he was up to it.”

In the first game of the day, Craig Grossman and Tyler Thorne each drove in three runs and Zane Ancell drove in a pair to back the pitching of Taylor Bridges.

Bridges scattered six runs — all unearned on six Coronado errors — on seven hits with three walks and four strikeouts. All of Abilene’s hits were singles.

DeLaGarza had three hits and a double, while Grossman, Thorne, Bridges and Clayton Brown each had a pair of hits.

“We scored four (in the first inning) and they scored one and I thought, ‘Oh, déjà vu,’” Hix said. “It was just the opposite for us.

“A lot of what happens for us is the fact that we did this last year. They feel comfortable. It’s not a panic situation. I’m not saying we want to do it that way all the time, but it doesn’t make you uncomfortable.”